‪The Nation Notebook: NHL/Flames meet to talk officiating, Is there a market for Lazar? and what it’s like to be a GM on deadline day. ‬

In today’s Nation Notebook, we look at the latest news around the league.

NHL and the Flames meet to discuss the way their games are officiated

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Freidman, the league and the Calgary Flames met to discuss the way their games are called.

We get phone calls, Part I: Last week, Doug was talking about a penalty Calgary took in its win over Philadelphia and I joked about the “Wideman Conspiracy.” One referee did not find that funny. The next day, he phoned to complain and dropped a bit of a bombshell: The NHL and the Flames met to discuss the way Calgary games are officiated. They went through a ton of video, and even talked about calls not made — including some specifically against Wideman.

From what I was told, it was very tense at times. The Flames lead the league in penalties taken and penalty minutes per game. Last year, they were 26th and 19th, respectively, in those categories.

You can’t forget what happened last year when Calgary Flame Dennis Wideman cross-checked linesman Don Henderson from behind and received a 20-game suspension.

Now, it appears the Flames feel like the incident has caused the team some issues. As Friedman wrote, the Flames have committed the most penalties this season and received the most penalty minutes per game.

Feel free to take either side on this. Is there really a conspiracy against the Calgary Flames? If the team has gone out of their way to chat with the league about the way their games are called, they must think there is some bias against them.

In the same breath, it’s not like the team made a huge move in the penalties taken rank. Who knows whether the NHL’s referees have colluded against the team or not.

What is Lazar worth?

His name has been circulating in the NHL’s rumour mill for a while now. A former first-rounder, Lazar hasn’t quite panned out as the Senators hoped.

In 175 NHL games, Lazar has only scored 36 points. Last year he scored a career high 20 points in 76 games, but this year he has only one point, an assist in 32 NHL games.

Despite his lack of production, the team isn’t ready to just give up on him as it’s rumoured that the Senators are looking for a first or second-round draft pick in return.

As TSN’s Travis Yost wrote, the team should be looking to move on from Lazar in fear of “holding onto an asset for far too long.”

I don’t envy Ottawa’s position here. You don’t want to be the team that trades away Filip Forsberg for a song. But you also need to balance the very real risk of holding onto an asset for far too long, especially when the empirical evidence suggests that said asset is rapidly depreciating in value.

If there’s a chance to acquire a meaningful draft pick or even a decent rental option at the trade deadline, I think you have to say yes. There’s a chance Lazar becomes Niederreiter. But there’s a much greater chance he’s not long for the NHL.

The Senators are a team poised to make a push for an Atlantic Division title and instead of having their big story being how they are looking to buy, it’s how they are looking to sell on Lazar.

What it’s like to be a GM on deadline day

We’ve all been there. It’s deadline day as you play the latest EA Sports NHL installment and you’re looking to make a splash.

Your team is in need of some scoring help, so you head to the league scoring leaders and try to put together a package for a high-scoring player to help supplement your team.

While it’s easy to make deals in a video game, the NHL’s trading is actually far different.

Yesterday, Yahoo!’s Jim Cerny wrote about life as a GM on deadline day. The article quotes Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford, Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving and current Carolina Hurricanes President and former Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell.

The article provides great insight into the life as a GM. As Treliving puts it, “We’re not in the fantasy hockey business. We’re dealing with real people, real families, and you have to recognize that. I am very cognizant that there’s a human element to this. People’s lives are being turned upside down with the decisions you make.”

NHL TRADE RUMOURS

According to Bruins reporter Joe Haggerty, the Bruins could be looking to make a splash and that they could look at guys like Gabriel Landeskog, Kevin Shattenkirk, or Jordan Eberle.

44 Comments |

So let me getthis straight, a lames defenseman cross checks a referee and now they are crying over the way their games are called. Burkie maybe if your players didn’t abuse officials this wouldn’t be an issue. Lamers=crybabies

Did the Oilers go to the league and whine when McDavid was run into the boards last year? Think about it, if you constantly whine about calls to the NHL do think the league is going to suggest to it’s officials you should call less penalties against the lames?

The whole Wideman issue pisses me off. He should be paying that refs lost wages for the time he missed due to his blatant assault.

On the other side of the coin. If refs are punishing the team for it.. SHAME on them. Their job above all else is maintaining the integrity of the game and remaining partial to events that happen on or off the ice.

I am not a flames fan by any stretch however maintaining the integrity of the game goes above all else and should be held at the highest standard bar none.

Curtis Lazar should never have been a first rounder his draft year, but good old NHL scouts fell in love with his “character” and “smile”. Lazar only had 0.85 PPG back in 2013 playing first line minutes for one of the deepest teams in the CHL. I mean to put it into perspective Oliver Bjorkstrand had 0.97 PPG that year and he was barely a third rounder. Buyer beware on Lazar, looking at past comparables Sven Baertschi only netted the Flames a second rounder and he had far more offensive upside than Lazar.

Seriously, you go from being one of the league’s cleanest teams to the most penalized and in the middle of the change is the Wideman incident. At least do Oiler’s fans a favor by exhibiting just a touch of thinking on the subject!

Do you think the organization wanted to take this tact? Think they tried other approaches? This wasn’t the first move, it will inevitably piss off the league, but they didn’t go there without evidence to show the team’s point of view.

I would suggest that YOU get YOUR facts straight. According to sportingcharts.com, last year the Flames were the 10th least penalized team in the league (total PIM). This year they are ranked 27th so far. I would say that is a VERY significant change in ranking for a team with pretty similar personnel (minus Brandon Bollig).

Adding a dirty slew footer like Tkachuk intensifies every game , plus Gio looks slower than ever so he ends up having to take penalties against faster younger players.

New coach and new systems probably led to a lot of differences in play which probably led to some confusion….either way whining and complaining to the league is something we should have expected out of Burke.

To be fair, Wideman wasn’t too apologetic to the ref involved after the incident. In fact he tried to side-step it and blame it on the ref. What is Calgary really trying to accomplish here? By bringing more attention to it isn’t going to make it go away. This issue with the refs isn’t a Calgary thing, its a Wideman thing.

Not sure why that double-posted but I’ll add that McDavid has been getting gooned all year just like Geudreau with very few calls made. Rules don’t apply when you’re trying to stop a player as fast as the two of them I guess. It got a little better after the public ridicule that followed pictures of “veteran official” Chris Lee standing right over McDavid as the other team hauled him down and sat on him… But not by much.

All teams have to go through this is what I’m saying. Not just Calgary.

NHL officiating is a joke. It’s one of the only leagues where refs can blatently screw up and face no criticism or review process afterwards. Do the refs hold grudges? You bet they do – you have to be blind not to see it.

What can teams do? Nothing. The league isn’t going to change things so beaking about it will only do harm as more grudges are created and nursed over the years.

To fix the problem and restore faith on the refs the league would need to implement a semi-public review for each game which issued a statement on any controversial calls or non-calls that occurred. If found at fault the refs would need some sort of accountability process. No different from a standard performance review process that occurs at most typical workplaces.

As for Lazar…. Bbbbbblllllltttthhhhhhh….. no thank you. Ottawa can enjoy what they drafted there.

Chia was pretty smart and built a team to protect their star player.
Calgary built a team of pansies and cheap shot artists (Bennet , Tkachuk ,Ferland , Engeland , ect) and then wonder why their star players get slashed all the time and the refs call penalties.

Nobody wonders why no Flame went out and stood up for little Johnny Hoggy?

We’ve seen the accusation of ref bias before.
Canucks fans will say that Burrows gets no benefit of the doubt since he publically complained about Stephane Auger. Where there is smoke there is fire with Wideman.

NHL refs are the worst in North American pro leagues, they drop the ball against all teams. The lames are just looking for excuses. Howany times have they stiffed McDavid? I don’t hear Chiarelli btiching about it.

you gotta laugh sometimes at what teams will ask for the players they could trade. there is no proof at all that Lazar is anything more than a 3rd/4th line player at most in the NHL and therefore might be worth a 2nd rounder from a contending team that could take a gamble on him, or a high to mid 3rd rounder in my opinion. at least Yak scored a bit more than Lazar has.

In terms of reffing, the move to discuss this issue is valid as many of the calls are unsubstantiated and biased while judgmental calls are prominent against players and teams. For instance, Matthew Tkachuk is fast becoming targets for violent treatment and/or mistreatment without the opposition being penalized for their actions; and so has Johnny Gaudreau. Alternatively, when it comes to certain players….a penalty shot is dished out but this is not the case when it comes to the Calgary Flames i.e. no such exceptions are made.

Becoming a General Manager. As Brad Treliving exemplifies, indeed “lives of players are turned upside down” and decision making can be overwhelming; and becoming a person in authority can be an arduous task.

Wideman’s disgrace aside, there are three good reason why Calgary does how it does with PIMs this year:

1. Matt Tkachuck is Andrew Shaw without the class. He’s a rook slew foot artist who lacks respect for the game and his opponents and who doesn’t do Calgary any favours with the refs.

2. Sam Bennett is a wannabe 1C who’s discovered that he’s actually a 3C and is attempting to play a physical game to more earn minutes but too often takes the stupid penalty option instead. That’s been his season so far. He needs Draisaitl lessons but that’s not happening.

3. Dougie Hamilton is a wannabe top 4 D with wheels of lead and a head on a rusted swivel. Alas, he too often gets beat to the point that he’s holding, hooking or slashing. He’s Eric Gryba with too much ice time and far less hitting power.

Take these three humps out of the game for a week or two and I’d wager that the Flames PIM/Game goes down by two minutes, or back to the league average. Leave ’em in and you can be guaranteed to lead the league in douchebaggery and whining, a Flames tradition since the 80’s.

I can sympathise with the Flames. The Refs do blacklist players; just think back to Theo Fleury and how he was blacklisted by the refs in his final years.

look at Alex Burrows; he called out a ref who gave him a penalty that cost the team the game because the ref felt Burrows embarrassed him in a different game.
Ever since, Burrows rarely gets a call from the ref even when he is the victim of a flagrant penalty.

We know refs have a favourable bias towards some teams (Penguins, Boston, big market teams) and it wouldn’t surprise me if the refs would black list a team they don’t favour. Especially a Canadian team.